The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-06-09
During the Queens Reign.

/ Now, how many wars have we had dur
ing the Queens reign? We have had a
war in New Zealand. and one of the officers
engaged in that war was obliged to admit
that the New Zealanders were entirely
right and we entirely wrong. We have
had three wars with China. We had aZulu
war not long ago, made absolutely by a man
withou6 any orders from this country, a
man who professed to be really influenced
| by the Christian faith and religion. That
cost us q great many English lives, and we
destroyed the Zulu nation, at the same
| time bringing confusion into South Africa.
| We had Scind war, i'll which one of the
Napiers was concerned, a war for which he
| had not the slightest Justification or in
| struction from this country. Then there
was the great Gikh war, by which the Pun
| jaub was annexed to the English dominion
! i'll India. There were also two Afghan
wars, for which there was not particle of
| Justification, in one of which a whole
| English army was destroyed. Then we
have had three Burmese wars, the second
of which. I recolecJ, was got UP on pre-
fences absolutely fraudulent and scandal
Gus. Then we come to the Crimean war,
the really big war of our time, though it
did not last very long. But as to its Sc
verify, and the mortality caused by it, no
man is able to make an accurate computa-
ton.
A book written by a French general who
recently visited the Crimea, in connection
with the cemeteries there, estimated that
the bodies of $50, 900 men are there. I
believe the Russians alone buried more
than 100, 600 on the north side Of Sevasto-
pol. Kinglake in his history estimates
struggle. number about equal to every
adult man in the vast city of London.
And what were all these lives sacrificed
for? Absolutely nothing whatever, be-
cause the only apparent result was slight
limitation put upon the Russian govern
ment with regard to its future fleet in the
Black sea, and that was surrendered the
moment the Franco German war broke
out. 1t was not war, because war was
never declared. but we made war, notwith-
standing, on a country with which we
were VIGOROUSLY and professedly at peace.
The bombardment of Alexandria is a sort
peace which the public of this country
have not been enthusiastic about. Then
followed the war in the Soudan, during
which, at the lowest calculation, from
10000 to $4,000 lives were lost.
once proposed that the foreign Office
should be burned down, and it would be a
very good thing if all the treaties were
burned with it, Conceive the cost of the
wars that have occurred during the reign
of the Queen. Go back further to the be-
ginning Of what we call our parliamentary
and constitutional system in the reign of
William III and you will find that without
one single exception they were absolutely
unnecessary, and that the only result they
have produced is an enormous national
debt, which from that time to this has
been extracted from the labor and the
sweat of millions of men in this country,
but which should have remained with them
for the sustenance and comfort of them
selves and their families.
Fifteen wars in a fifty years. reign of a
professedly peace-loving =" and tender
hearted Queen are hardly among the bless
ings for which jubilee thanks will be re-
turned.-Cor. Boston Globe.